Tonight's Raw is 13 days from the Royal Rumble. The main event will be John Cena vs. C.M. Punk.
Here are my thoughts on the show as it happens:
I mostly liked the opening segment, but I'm really tired of stupid "poop jokes" by John Cena (or any wrestler... or anyone else). It did a good job teasing and building future matches though, and that's what segments on the mic are supposed to do. It also somewhat moved Santino and Kozlov up a notch.
The Usos put up a fight here, but alas, no one survives the Cobra. I won't argue that it's not a ridiculous finisher as something that can seriously take out an opponent. I'm entertained by Santino, but I accept that kayfabe can't really explain away that silly move.
Ziggler vs. Orton? I like. Ziggler getting a boost from a Raw appearance will help him look important enough to face Edge.
WWE's doing a good job so far of keeping John Morrison relevant despite him losing to The Miz. Daniel Bryan's getting more hype than I would have thought as well. Interesting that they did face vs. face here. This match was all about showing good wrestling from two stars who "get" the art of wrestling.
Sheamus cut a pretty good promo. They're really doing a good job setting up the Rumble tonight. I keep expecting Triple H to come back and lay Sheamus out with a sledgehammer. And then take out Nexus, and prevent this new talent from shining as much. Not because of his backstage pull, but because he's a big star returning. Kind of like Undertaker. I really hope they don't turn WWE into the Triple H show and Undertaker show when they return, because they've made a lot of good work in their absences.
I hear the complaints already. "They're redoing the angle from 8 years ago when Chris Jericho and Christian bet on who would sleep with Trish Stratus first". There's something called the "7 year rule" in wrestling where you can re-do an angle and it will be fresh again (because most of the audience will have been "recycled" by that time). Even if it is a similar angle (despite the Bellas being twins, and it being females vying over a male, and they're not heels), it's OK to have similar angles sometimes if they're still good. So as long as it's interesting and not just a rehash (where they bet $1 Canadian who will be with him first) and even if it is that outcome, it's fine by me if it's done well.
Orton vs. Ziggler wasn't bad, but I don't think Ziggler's quite ready for main event level matches. The Miz and Alex Riley continue to look like legitimate threats to Orton and the WWE Title picture. I wonder if we'll see Lawler and Riley in the Rumble to continue this feud.
The Divas match and what happened afterward could have been done better. It didn't do a good job of setting up a future Natalya-Melina match. I do like that maybe they're setting up something for Ted DiBiase though.
Well, so much for that. At least it wasn't The Great Khali beating him. The random Rumble fight was a little ridiculous but kind of served its purpose. Del Rio was impressive as always.
The Derrick Bateman segment was out of nowhere. I was kind of lukewarm on this one. I think we'll see King vs. Cole at WrestleMania.
The "numbers" package is always cool. It makes the Rumble seem important and like the real deal as far as sports are concerned. Pretty cool work by WWE.
Miz vs. Edge next week? Awesome.
Solid main event by Punk and Cena. That was actually the Koji Klutch, not the Anaconda Vise. Anyway, the man who interfered was FCW Champion Mason Ryan. As you can tell, he resembles Batista so they could (and maybe should) push him as a relative of The Animal. He's a powerhouse for sure. I want to see how this plays out.
Pretty good show this week. I'll be back tomorrow to review NXT.
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